Texas Reliability Entity CEO Jim Albright said in the organization’s annual report for 2021 that staff were tested by February’s winter storm and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but they “rose to the occasion and [were] able to maintain high-level operations across all program areas while functioning in a virtual work environment.”
The report, released last week, details Texas RE’s accomplishments in registration and certification, reliability standards, compliance assessment, enforcement, reliability services, and outreach.
The Reliability Services Department, which monitors the Texas Interconnection by reviewing system disturbances, analyzing grid performance and contributing to future performance, maintained situational awareness throughout the February winter storm. It also participated in developing the FERC–NERC joint inquiry’s key findings with their staff and those of other regional entities.
“Winter weather readiness has been top-of-mind for all of us this past year, so continuing to engage with stakeholders on this key topic and other extreme events is critical to bulk power system reliability,” Board of Directors Chair Milton Lee said in the report.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — MISO members last week urged the RTO to position itself as a liaison to help stakeholders access project funding from last year’s federal infrastructure bill.
They also said MISO’s long-range transmission projects seem ripe for an infusion of cash.
The $1.2 trillion bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed Congress in November and was swiftly signed into law by President Joe Biden. The bill provides billions in financial resources for new transmission, energy efficiency, electric vehicle development, carbon-capture technologies and nuclear fleet preservation. (See Biden Signs $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Bill.)
During an Advisory Committee roundtable discussion Wednesday on the legislation’s effect within the RTO’s footprint, several stakeholders envisioned a mad scramble for the bill’s grants and loans. They said the process to access the funds is still unclear.
ITC Holdings’ Brian Drumm, representing transmission owners, said the grid operator might serve as a “hub or a clearing house of ideas” to bring its stakeholders together on projects that would be candidates for the bill’s funds.
The Union of Concerned Scientists’ Sam Gomberg said MISO could foster a coalition among its stakeholders and members that would help it better its chances to save members’ customers money.
Multiple stakeholders said the RTO might be able to approach the Department of Energy and deliver some clarity to stakeholders. Many said MISO has a role to play in gathering stakeholders together to develop infrastructure projects that can vie for federal dollars.
“MISO could be a conduit for demanding clarity … of what the DOE is asking for. I think they could gather better answers than what my group could,” said Public Consumer Advocates sector representative Christina Baker.
Gomberg said MISO has already done a lot of work to identify the transmission expansion it needs to sustain the grid through its long-range transmission planning. He said MISO could easily get noticed by the DOE as a recipient of federal dollars.
“I know the DOE is under the gun. They want to move this money out the door,” he said. “I think it would be a missed opportunity if MISO and utilities and members didn’t get in line for some funding for these projects.”
Michigan Public Service Commissioner Dan Scripps also said it appeared MISO could see some of the bill’s benefits flow back to the region through its long-range transmission plan.
Otter Tail Power’s Stacie Hebert, representing MISO transmission owners, said it’s not clear how approval of federally funded projects would logistically work. She asked whether transmission developers would still come before the RTO to request project approval.
The Affiliate Sector’s Michelle Bloodworth, CEO of coal trade organization America’s Power, said it’s logical that MISO’s transmission planning would be most affected by the bill. She asked staff to consider that the bill provides for grid development in rural areas, which could spur transmission projects in unexpected places.
Bloodworth said the infrastructure funding will likely speed up the nation’s transition to clean energy sources. She encouraged MISO to conduct analyses on how the bill might interrupt dispatchable resources’ revenue streams.
Multiple members agreed that ratepayers, especially residential ones, should ultimately see the most savings.
The Advisory Committee will discuss the energy industry’s staffing shortages and employee retention concerns during its quarterly Board Week meeting in June. MISO leadership has said it and members are not immune from the Great Reshuffle and CEO John Bear has voiced apprehensions about the grid operator’s ability to secure talent in a tight labor market.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Now in its fifth year, MISO’s market system replacement project is focusing on a one-stop model manager, new energy management system and day-ahead market-clearing engine.
MISO Vice President Todd Ramey said during the Board of Directors’ March 22 Technology Committee meeting that staff hopes to retire its existing model-management procedure by the end of the year. Going forward, the RTO will rely on a standardized model manager that will be improved upon through 2024, with monthly updates instead of quarterly refreshes.
The grid operator receives modeling data from more than 60 transmission owners and nearly 600 market participants. Ramey said that currently the submission methods vary and require manual validation of the data.
The RTO also plans to test its new energy management system this year and prepare for parallel operations in 2023. The EMS system was delivered last year by General Electric; it’s also slated to deliver the new day-ahead market-clearing engine by the end of 2023.
Ramey said General Electric has two dedicated teams for MISO’s market system, one working on the market clearing engine and another devoted to the EMS.
MISO’s market platform project is set to conclude in late 2024 when the real-time market fully migrates to the new, modular platform.
“This is critical to all the things we want to do to facilitate the change that’s coming,” MISO CEO John Bear said, referring to the new platform.
Later this year, the RTO must add an energy storage participation model to its legacy market platform. Staff have said they couldn’t simultaneously roll out the energy storage offers mandated by FERC Order 841 while working on the platform replacement. FERC has said storage participation couldn’t wait, so MISO must introduce the storage participation model on both its old and new market platforms. (See MISO: No Choice but to Double Up on 841 Compliance.)
During Thursday’s board meeting, Bear said MISO’s quarterly progress report on the market platform was brief, which he said was a good sign. He said Ramey and his team were making such good progress that there was little to report.
Director Todd Raba asked whether the RTO is stepping up cybersecurity measures following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. has put the private sector on notice that Russia may launch cyberattacks in retaliation for Western sanctions.
Chief Information Security Officer Keri Glitch said staff understands that Russia is ramping up “preparatory action” for a cyberattack, including scanning websites for security cracks.
“We continue to take appropriate actions,” Glitch said, adding that MISO regularly reviews updates from government authorities. Staff further addressed the situation in a closed session following the technology committee meeting.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — MISO leadership took advantage of its Board Week in Memphis to meet with Memphis Light, Gas and Water staff, who are mulling a split from the Tennessee Valley Authority and a new source of wholesale power.
MISO was one of 27 respondents to MLGW’s requests for proposals for an alternative wholesale supplier. The utility is reviewing the proposals and has yet to announce whether it will depart TVA. (See Memphis Moves Closer to Breaking from TVA.)
MLGW representatives and Memphis-based lawyers and activists attended MISO’s Thursday board meeting.
Former MLGW CEO Herman Morris, Jr., who now practices energy law, said he appreciated getting to know the people behind MISO.
“The City of Memphis is at a crossroads,” said Pearl Eva Walker, representing the Memphis Has the Power campaign, an offshoot of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. “While TVA heralds its low rates, Memphians struggle to afford power.”
Walker expressed frustration at Memphis’ high energy burdens and TVA’s lagging decarbonization goals, which render the city’s own climate goals unattainable. She also said it’s unacceptable that the federal agency now dumps tons of coal ash near a South Memphis residential area of 72,000 people.
“We can’t trust TVA,” she said. “They have no accountability. They have no integrity.”
Walker urged MISO to work with the utility and forge a relationship should Memphis decide to join the RTO. The city will need to develop its transmission infrastructure if it’s to access MISO’s wholesale markets.
MISO said last week that Kevin Vannoy, its director of market design, passed away unexpectedly on March 20.
An emotional CEO John Bear remembered Vannoy as a “phenomenal” link between the RTO and stakeholders whose knowledge, warm manner and quick wit benefited many.
Vannoy was with the grid operator for more than 15 years and was a fixture at Market Subcommittee and Resource Adequacy Subcommittee (RASC) meetings, often delivering presentations and leading stakeholder conversations.
RASC Chair Kari Hassler, of Xcel Energy, recalled Vannoy as an invaluable source of knowledge and “a reasonable voice in stakeholder discussions.”
MISO Expects to be On-budget in 2022
MISO’s finances are tracking to be on budget in 2022, CFO Melissa Brown told the board.
Brown said her team predicts that by year’s end, the RTO will pay about $282 million in base expenses and $47 million in project investments. Both projections are within a 1% variance from the 2022 budget set last year.
MISO has spent $22 million of its base budget and $2.3 million of its project investment budget so far this year.
Brown said inflation has taken the financial team a little off-guard.
“MISO continues to monitor the evolving labor market dynamics, supply chain situation, interest rate environment as well as inflation, which may lead to more significant adjustments to the 2022 forecast in the coming months,” she said.
Last year, the grid operator was 1.4% under its $271 million base budget and 5.5% under its $50 million project investment budget.
Brown said the underspend was primarily due to lingering COVID-19 impacts, including reduced travel spending, diminished off-site training and untouched salaries and benefits allotments because of unfilled positions.
Board Asks for Better Succession Planning
The grid operator’s directors are becoming concerned about succession planning within their ranks, according to the board’s annual self-evaluation.
They pointed out that most of the nine directors are in their sixth or seventh year of service. The directors said they and MISO should work on ensuring the board doesn’t suffer gap years where it’s light on experience with the RTO’s systems and protocols.
MISO directors are limited to serving three three-year terms.
FERC on Thursday once again rejected attempts by environmental, clean energy and community groups to overturn both its approval of the Southeast Energy Exchange Market (SEEM) and its subsequent orders implementing the market (ER21-1111, et al.).
The petitioners — two separate collections of activist organizations calling themselves the Clean Energy Coalition and the Public Interest Organizations (PIOs) — have been active in their opposition to SEEM since before the market came into effect by force of law last October because of the inability of commissioners to form a majority either for or against approval. (See SEEM to Move Ahead, Minus FERC Approval.)
The groups challenged this and were denied by the commission. Their request for rehearing Nov. 12 (30 days after the Oct. 13 announcement that the agreement had taken effect) was rejected on the grounds that it was filed out of time; FERC reasoned that the request should have been filed by Nov. 10 (30 days after the deadline for FERC to issue an order expired on Oct. 11, Columbus Day).
After the SEEM agreement became effective, FERC in November approved revisions to four of the participating utilities’ open access transmission tariffs (OATT) implementing the non-firm energy exchange transmission service (NFEETS) used to deliver the market’s energy transactions. (See FERC Accepts Key Tariff Revisions to SEEM.) The petitioners also filed for rehearing of this request, which FERC likewise denied.
Thursday’s orders affirmed FERC’s decisions in both of these cases. Regarding the rehearing request for the original SEEM approval, the commission argued that “the statutory deadline under Section 205(d) [of the Federal Power Act] is a strict requirement.” While petitioners had pointed out that FERC has previously allowed more time for filing rehearing requests because the deadline for commission action fell on a public holiday or a weekend, the commission replied that court decisions have not allowed such extensions for decisions relating to electric rates.
FERC was likewise “unpersuaded” by the petitioners’ description of the OATT amendments as discriminatory. For one thing, the commission said, the PIOs and Clean Energy Coalition had merely repeated their claims that the SEEM agreement constitutes a loose power pool, claims that “were thoroughly addressed in the November 2021 order.”
Additionally, the petitioners had argued that SEEM members have “absolute discretion” about whether NFEETS is used. FERC said that this is not true, because NFEETS is so fundamental to the system that there is no discretion available to members on this point; NFEETS must be used for SEEM to function at all. The commission also disagreed with the claim that requiring “good financial standing” to access NFEETS, as required in the OATT amendments, is unreasonable, as the original OATT also included requirements related to creditworthiness.
Commissioners’ Statements Point to Pending Appeal
Some of the members of the two petitioner groups have also separately filed an appeal in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, asking the court to set aside SEEM’s implementation and FERC’s approval of the tariff amendments. (See Environmental Groups Appeal SEEM in DC Circuit.) Thursday’s order did not directly discuss those challenges, though Commissioners James Danly and Mark Christie issued concurring statements intended to clarify statements of theirs, cited by the petitioners in their arguments, for the benefit of “any reviewing court.”
Danly’s and Christie’s clarifications pertain to their statements of Oct. 20 explaining their support for the SEEM agreement. (Chairman Richard Glick and Commissioner Allison Clements both voted against approval.) Both statements included language that the petitioners interpreted to support their contention that the SEEM agreement took effect later than Oct. 11; Christie and Danly emphasized in their concurrences that this was not their intent, and they both agreed with the commission’s timeline.
Clements also concurred with FERC’s decision to deny rehearing of the SEEM agreement, though she called it a “close case” that is “lamentable insofar as it deprives the rehearing parties a chance to be heard on the merits of their claims” and also leaves unaddressed the question of whether FERC’s deadline for action continues to run during a federal holiday or emergency. Unlike her colleagues, Clements did mention the pending case before the D.C. Circuit, which she hoped would provide “clarity in this difficult matter.”
Clements had dissented on the amendments approval, writing that she agreed with petitioners that “NFEETS is provided through a loose power pool, [and] the majority’s determination to the contrary is arbitrary and capricious.”
“I am an ardent supporter of electric markets when they are used to meaningfully harness competition and ensure better outcomes for customers, including through reduced costs and reliability benefits,” Clements wrote. She warned that the decision “puts a camel’s nose of discrimination under FERC’s tent, threatening to despoil the principles this commission has long held dear. Whatever the potential market benefits of SEEM, the means by which utilities transition towards such a market cannot be permitted to undermine the bedrock principle of ensuring open access to non-discriminatory rates and service.”
MISO focused on its first long-range transmission portfolio (LRTP) package twice last week, revealing an early price tag during its March Board Week and then holding a stakeholder workshop Friday to address cost-related questions.
The RTO has cut one long-range project from its final lineup, dropping one of two 345-kV lines in southern Minnesota. That reduced the portfolio’s cost to $10.4 billion, down from a previously announced $13 billion, while staff continues to refine cost estimates. (See MISO Delays $13B Long-range Portfolio’s Recommendation.)
Even as MISO pushed back the board’s consideration of the portfolio to July, it said it wants to move quickly in strengthening the grid with new lines. Its planners have said the seven 345-kV projects should relieve congestion that the Independent Market Monitor regularly warns of and tracks. (See MISO Says System Volatility Here to Stay.)
The grid operator doesn’t yet have estimated in-service dates for the projects.
Jarred Miland, senior manager of transmission planning coordination, said the LRTP is the most expensive package MISO has put forward. He also said it represents the most extensive planning work the RTO has ever performed.
A final list of 345 kV projects from the first cycle of MISO’s long-range transmission planning | MISO
The projects will ease growing pains as MISO grapples with increasing renewable energy output and the loss of large, centralized power plants, Miland said. He pointed out that the interconnection queue contains almost 56 GW of solar projects alone.
“The LRTP is not a one-and-done. It’s a journey,” Miland said of the first cycle of projects.
MISO will begin work on a second cycle sometime during the third quarter, Miland said. The second portfolio will focus on MISO Midwest, as did the first. MISO South won’t enter the planning picture until the third and fourth iterations of long-range planning.
“It’s a big system. It’s a tremendous amount of work,” Miland said. “We do recognize that there is a lot more work to do. That’s why we’re moving into tranche two. It’s a big apple. We can’t eat it all at once.”
The seven groupings of 345-kV projects include:
a $955 million line from Jamestown to Ellendale and Big Stone to Alexandria to Cassie’s Crossing in Western Minnesota and the Dakotas;
a $1.2 billion line that crosses Minnesota into Wisconsin, hitting Wilmarth, North Rochester, Tremval, Eau Claire and Jump River;
a $673 million line from Minnesota into Wisconsin that touches Tremval, Rocky Run and Columbia;
an $853 million line in Western Minnesota and the Dakotas that intersects Iron Range, Benton and Cassie’s Crossing;
an $894 million line in Iowa that passes over Webster, Franklin, Morgan Valley and then Beverly to Substation 92 near West Liberty;
a $2 billion line situated mostly in Northern Missouri that includes Orient, Iowa, and extends into Meredosia, Ill.; and
a sprawling, $3.4 billion line that links Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan.
The portfolio also provides for $350 million in lower voltage “under-build” projects necessary to accommodate the 345-kV transmission. MISO is still working to compile a list of the under-build projects.
“The under-build sort of represents … a high-end bogey as to where we’ll end up,” Miland said.
Miland said anytime MISO introduces new, large transmission projects, power system flows and contingencies could change and necessitate new equipment.
Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission staffer Dave Johnston asked whether the massive Iowa-to-Michigan project in the Central Region will be open to competitive bidding and whether it will be split up by jurisdiction into project segments.
MISO Executive Director of System Planning Aubrey Johnson said staff has yet to finalize those details.
“We have to think about some natural break points,” Johnson said, citing recent rights-of-first-refusal legislation in Michigan, Minnesota and Iowa. Wisconsin lawmakers are also considering ROFR laws.
MISO said its steady-state analysis of the Iowa-to-Michigan line show that it “can mitigate severe thermal issues in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa,” including reduced loading on 78 monitored facilities.
The grid operator is currently drafting an appendix to its 2021 Transmission Expansion Plan (MTEP 21) for the long-range projects. The portfolio will be part of MTEP 21, although its project approvals will take place about six months after the $3 billion MTEP 21 was approved.
MISO plans to divide costs of the long-range plan using a subregional, 100% postage stamp to load rate that is pending before FERC.
FERC said Thursday that a new renewable energy investment firm cannot cut corners when applying for qualifying facility statuses.
Irradiant Partners, an Austin, Texas-based private equity firm focusing on clean energy infrastructure, asked the commission last November to waive a requirement that it submit recertifications for generators to be qualifying facilities (QF) under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act.
The commission, which requires a QF’s status be recertified when a generators’ upstream management changes, declined the ask (EL22-8).
Irradiant was spun off from Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors in October. Upon forming, it acquired a controlling ownership interest in a portfolio of 185 small renewable generation projects across the country. The equity firm argued that the facilities were all under 20 MW and not yet in operation. Irradiant also said Kayne Anderson, despite not being under FERC jurisdiction, had already filed for QF statuses.
FERC rejected the argument, saying it’s important it have current and accurate QF information on file. It said that a change in upstream control is too big to overlook.
“The commission has found that ownership information, in particular, is important; it assists the commission in monitoring potential discrimination in the provision of service and in reviewing the extent to which QFs should continue to be exempt from various provisions of the [Federal Power Act] and state laws,” it said.
The commission also rebuffed Irradiant’s argument that preparing and filing nearly 200 recertifications would be too labor-intensive and too time-consuming. It said because Kayne Anderson had already applied for QF statuses, Irradiant largely had copy-and-paste work ahead of it.
Irradiant “is overstating the time and effort” required to reapply for QF status, the commission said. It said for each facility, Irradiant must provide mostly “fill-in -the-blank or check-the-box” information on six or seven pages in addition to supplying one- to two- paragraph descriptions for the renewable generators.
FERC last week approved the Bonneville Power Administration’s proposed 2022 wholesale power and transmission rates — a formality by the commission that carries little weight under federal law.
Under the Northwest Power Act, FERC’s review of BPA’s proposed rates is limited to determining whether the rates:
are sufficient to assure repayment of federal investment in the Federal Columbia River Power System over a “reasonable” number of years after meeting BPA’s costs;
are based on BPA’s total system costs; and
equitably distribute the costs of the federal transmission system between federal and non-federal generation.
Unlike its jurisdictional authority over public utilities under the Federal Power Act, FERC does not hold authority to modify BPA’s proposed rates, which are developed by BPA’s federally appointed administrator and then submitted to the commission for approval or disapproval.
“In this regard, the commission’s role can be viewed as an appellate one: to affirm or remand the rates submitted to it for review,” FERC noted in its order Thursday (EF21-3).
Under its rate proposals, BPA estimated that the filed rates will produce average annual power revenues of $2.774 billion and annual transmission and ancillary services revenues of $1.151 billion, sufficient to recover its costs for the 2021-23 rate approval period while also providing 95% probability that it can make all required payments to the U.S. Treasury Department on time.
“The traditional measure of the adequacy of Bonneville’s revenues has been the power repayment study,” the commission wrote. “Bonneville’s generation and transmission repayment studies indicate that the revenues expected to be collected under the proposed rates will be sufficient to recover the total system costs, including the recovery of the remaining federal investment, with interest, over the repayment period.”
The commission’s order also rejected a joint protest by the Idaho Conservation League, Great Old Broads for Wilderness and Idaho Rivers United, who argued that BPA has not met its statutory obligation to “protect, mitigate, and enhance fish and wildlife” affected by the federal hydropower system or demonstrate “equitable treatment” for fish and wildlife overall.
The protesters contended that the Northwest Power Act requires that BPA’s funding decisions be subject to an “equitable treatment” mandate and that the agency must take the Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s fish and wildlife program into account “to the fullest extent practicable” when setting funding levels for fish and wildlife mitigation. BPA’s failure to re-evaluate its fish and wildlife funding in the rate case represented a violation of the Northwest Power Act and Administrative Procedure Act, the protesters said.
In dismissing the protest, the commission agreed with BPA that the protesters’ arguments fell outside FERC’s limited jurisdiction over BPA’s rates under the Northwest Power Act.
“We agree with Bonneville that the commission’s review of Bonneville’s power and transmission rates is limited by Section 7(a)(2) of the Northwest Power Act,” the commission said. “Bonneville’s compliance with its environmental review and fish and wildlife protection obligations is thus outside the scope of the commission’s review under Section 7(a)(2). Because our review is limited to the relevant provisions of the Northwest Power Act, we do not address the joint protesters’ allegation that Bonneville has violated the Administrative Procedure Act.”
The U.S. Department of Justice revealed on Thursday that it has charged four Russian nationals for “attempting, supporting and conducting” computer hacking operations against the global energy sector, including electric utilities within the U.S.
In a media statement, DOJ officials said that the charges comprise two separate cases filed last year. The first set of charges was brought in June 2021 by a federal grand jury in D.C.
According to the indictment, Evgeny Viktorovich Gladkikh, a computer programmer working for Russia’s Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics (TsNIIKhM) allegedly worked with unnamed co-conspirators between May and September 2017 to hack into industrial control systems (ICS) and operational technology (OT) networks of an oil refinery outside the U.S. They later attempted a similar operation at a U.S. refinery but were unable to hack into the system at all.
The group installed malware on the foreign refinery’s network that was intended to disable the refinery’s safety systems, but when they deployed the malware, it instead caused “a fault that led the refinery’s … safety systems to initiate two automatic emergency shutdowns of the refinery’s operations.”
Gladkikh faces one count of conspiracy to cause damage to an energy facility, one count of attempt to cause damage to an energy facility and one count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud. The first two charges carry maximum sentences of 20 years in prison, while the last carries a penalty of up to five years.
Security Officers Targeted Power Plants
The other case involves Pavel Aleksandrovich Akulov, Mikhail Mikhailovich Gavrilov and Marat Valeryevich Tyukov, all officers in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). A federal grand jury in Kansas brought the charges in August of last year, accusing the three men of a five-year operation targeting the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems in U.S. energy facilities.
The plan had two stages: First, beginning in 2012, the defendants compromised the computer networks of ICS and SCADA system manufacturers and software providers and hid malware, dubbed “Havex” by cybersecurity researchers, in the update channels for their software products — a very similar plot to the 2020 hack of the SolarWinds Orion network management platform, also attributed to Russian hackers. (See FERC, E-ISAC Report Details Reach of SolarWinds Compromise.) According to the government, the group was able to install malware on more than 17,000 devices in the U.S. and overseas, including its targets in the energy sector.
In the second stage, the hackers shifted tactics to compromise specific energy sector entities, as well as individuals and engineers working with ICS and SCADA systems. This phase brought spearphishing attacks against more than 3,300 users in both the private and public sector. Successfully compromised targets included the Wolf Creek Generating Station, a nuclear plant in Kansas, although the release said the hackers only gained access to the plant’s business network, not the SCADA systems.
Akulov, Gavrilov and Tyukov face multiple counts, including conspiracy to cause damage to the property of an energy facility, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identify theft. All of the charges carry maximum sentences of five to 20 years in prison, except for the identify theft charge, which carries a minimum sentence of two years in addition to any other sentences imposed.
Russia’s Continuing Cyber Threat
At the same time DOJ released news of the charges, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a release providing more detail on the suspects’ hacking operations. The U.S. State Department also added the four men to its Rewards for Justice page, offering rewards of up to $10 million for “information leading to [their] identification or location.”
Concern over Russian hacking capabilities has been growing for years; DOJ previously charged six Russian military intelligence officers for cyberattacks against Ukraine’s power grid in 2015 and 2017, along with attacks on the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea and others. (See Six Russians Charged for Ukraine Cyberattacks.) Those fears have only grown more acute following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month, with experts warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin could lash out with electronic warfare as conventional military operations lose momentum. (See Experts Warn Cyberwar Still Possible.)
“Russian state-sponsored hackers pose a serious and persistent threat to critical infrastructure both in the United States and around the world,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “Although the criminal charges unsealed today reflect past activity, they make crystal clear the urgent ongoing need for American businesses to harden their defenses and remain vigilant.”
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — MISO sees no end in sight to the system volatility that could plunge it into springtime emergency operations, staff said Thursday during a quarterly markets review.
“We face a rapidly transforming energy landscape,” CEO John Bear told directors during a Board Week meeting, warning of a delicate load-supply balance.
He said when MISO introduced its ancillary services market 12 years ago, “load was the only thing that was moving around.”
“Everything else was pretty static and predictable,” Bear said. “Where we stand is not sustainable, and it’s not safe. We have a lot of work in front of us.”
COO Clair Moeller said the RTO is laser focused on a “safe, reliable and affordable” transition despite proliferating operational complications.
“We’ve spent most of our time in committee meetings talking about volatility and uncertainty,” Moeller said, referring to the week’s activities.
“In the year 2000, volatility was a deterministic thing,” he said. “The volatility that’s facing us is more probabilistic than deterministic.”
Wayne Schug, MISO’s vice president of strategy and business development, said a growing renewables fleet and rapidly changing weather is driving increasing volatility and an “inability to deal with it.”
By 2030, as little as 57% of the RTO’s fleet could be dispatchable, staff said. Dispatchable resources accounted for 84% of the fleet in 2020.
Schug said that since 2017, average daily output swings and forecasting errors have grown by gigawatts and percentages points, respectively. He said while the grid operator continues to get better at output forecasting, the expanding wind fleet has blotted out any signs of improvement.
“I caution you about averages,” Schug said. “Our extremes are much higher.”
Growing hourly wind output and volatility from 2008 to 2021
| MISO
Moeller said that for three days in 2020, MISO’s entire wind fleet in the upper Midwest failed to generate a megawatt. He also said unexpected cloud cover could make a solar farm “disappear within three minutes.”
MISO will work to pre-position its system for bad days, Moeller said. Executives said plans for seasonal capacity auctions and big-ticket transmission projects should help.
Director Mark Johnson asked staff to invite a control room operator to a board meeting to address their recent experiences dealing with grid volatility.
Staff Warns of Emergency Ops
MISO’s Zak Joundi said while the RTO should have adequate resources through spring, it could declare an emergency if faced with restricted generation output and high demand in April or May. He said the spring outlook echoes last year’s spring peak estimate and resource availability.
“Uncertainty can be especially exacerbated in spring,” he told the board’s Markets Committee Tuesday.
Joundi said MISO is working with an aging generation fleet more prone to outages with increasingly uncertain return-to-service dates. He said the footprint’s current rate of generation retirement — propelled, in part, by state and federal policies — is outpacing members’ capacity replacements.
Staff expects the number of emergency near-misses to rise every year, Joundi said. He said MISO may expand a weekly winter fuel security survey of fossil-fuel owners into a year-round task. (See MISO Winter Fuel Security Surveys Now Permanent.)
During the recent winter, MISO said renewable generation accounted for an increasing share of load. On Jan. 18, 24 GW of wind generation served 30% of the RTO’s load at one point. On Feb. 19, MISO reported its first seasonal solar generation peak of 1.6 GW.
“As the portfolio has transitioned to increased levels of wind output, operators are managing greater levels of volatility and uncertainty, making complex unit commitment decisions,” Joundi said. “How can we have the right market product to incentivize … the right kind of flexibility to complement this volatility?”
“There’s no magic bullet, market products and tools, or transmission,” Director Barbara Krumsiek said.
Joundi said that the control room now manages more intra-hour instability and intensifying “wind droughts,” where wind output drops off below forecasts.
“We’re seeing a lot more output and volatility on the wind side,” agreed MISO Independent Market Monitor David Patton.
Patton said MISO racked up about $750 million in real-time congestion costs during the winter, the most ever for a three-month period.
He said the grid operator is limited on wind generation it can export from the Midwest westward to SPP, saturating the system at times and lowering energy prices. Patton also said part of the congestion problem lies in SPP not modeling MISO’s constraints in its day-ahead market, making some uneconomic generation units appear economic in the SPP market. He said he was working with SPP and its monitor to fix the problem.
Patton also said drought conditions in the Canadian province of Manitoba led Manitoba Hydro to import more power from MISO, increasing constraints in the footprint’s northern portion. Manitoba Hydro’s Audrey Penner said a “deluge” of snow this winter will improve the situation as it thaws.
Coal generation’s share of energy output dropped from 41% last winter to 36% this winter, Patton said, because of retirements and limited coal supplies. Natural gas generation’s output share rose from 26% in 2021 to 29%. He said natural gas generation would have grown more this winter but for the “run up in gas prices.”
Patton said he expects difficulties with securing coal to continue into the foreseeable future.
